


Mother's Son

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Fire's Stone - Tanya Huff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-22
Updated: 2004-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Taelle</p>
    </blockquote>





	Mother's Son

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Taelle

 

 

Aaron twisted in on himself, pulling the covers this way and that and finally waking Darvish up with a kick to the shin.

"Ow!" Darvish exclaimed, blurry-voiced in night. "Aaron?" His eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and he could see Aaron turning and tossing in the sheets. This huge bed in the east wing of the island palace had been intended for Chandra and him, but they all shared it, with Chandra slipping in under the covers at odd hours. Sometimes, as with tonight, Chandra didn't come in at all, preferring to continue her wizardly studies under the softer light of the stars.

He reached over and gently shook the smaller man. "Aaron. Wake up, you're dreaming."

Aaron shook his head, once, twice, as if clearing the dream-mist from his mind and sat abruptly up. Darvish was surprised by the expression in those eyes. It was...yearning? The Aaron blinked and whatever it was vanished into the air. "Dar?"

"You were dreaming." Darvish repeated. "It looked bit like you were having a nightmare." He hesitated. "Want to talk about it?"

Aaron's gray eyes quickly became hooded. "It wasn't a nightmare." He reached out a hand and touched Darvish's bare shoulder. "But thanks for waking me up."

The touch sent a frisson of desire through Darvish and he sucked in a breath. Protestations of how Aaron had changed the subject could wait until morning. "Well. Since we're both up..." He captured Aaron's hand with his own and drew Aaron down to him.

In the morning, Darivsh would recall how Aaron threw himself into their lovemaking with wild desperation, almost as if he was trying to lose himself and all conscious thought in the act. But for now, there was only sweet, sweat-soaked skin and Aaron's mouth and Aaron's hands on his body.

*

After breakfast, Darvish managed to corner Chandra out of the sharp sight and hearing of Aaron. "I'm getting worried about him." He confided in her. "This is the third night in a row that I've woken up and shook him up of a dream. He insists that he's not having nightmares or anything, but he never wants to go back to sleep..." Darvish spread his hands out helplessly, looking lost.

Chandra gave a terse nod. Aaron's past was not a pretty one and they knew that his childhood made both of theirs look like epitome of normal family life. "I'm not sure if we can do anything, if he's refusing to talk about it." She paused and then took a deep breath. "I have been reading a change in him - at a kind of magical or spiritual level."

Darvish's brow wrinkled. "What do you mean? A change? What sort of change?"

"I'm not sure if I have words for it in regular language." Chandra bit her lip. "It's kind of like this - every person has an unique magical signature, even if they are not capable of wizardry themselves. Aaron's is somehow getting _clearer_. Which shouldn't happen."

"So, what can we do?"

She shrugged. "Watch and wait. And try to get Aaron to talk."

*

It happened a few days later. There'd been two more dreams, as far as Darvish and Chandra could tell. Aaron started to get circles under his eyes, which just made Darvish more worried. Even the sex, as great as it was, couldn't distract him much anymore.

It was late afternoon and they were watching and playing around with Kesin's children in the garden, who were visiting. Chandra was taking a very serious interest in getting to know and help raise her cousin's children, even if she still refused to bear one herself.

Chandra was holding the baby in her arms and cooing to it. The six-year-old, Petra was ambling around in the flowers. Darvish had turned to say something to Chandra, and the next thing he knew, Aaron had shouted and sprinted across the garden. Darvish followed his path and felt his breath catch. Petra had somehow climbed up the apple tree and looked about to fall.

And then Aaron held out his arms and the child seemed to float in mid-air. Darvish stared. The moment froze in time: Aaron, his arms outstretched, Petra floating in the air, laughing happily, the sun shining down on them both, glinting in Aaron's ginger hair and Petra's golden head.

Petra dropped into Aaron's arms and the world came alive again. Aaron walked carefully over to Chandra and Darvish, placed the child down in front of them, and took off running into the palace. Darvish swore, left Chandra to check over Petra, and ran after him.

He found Aaron crouched by a stairwell, trembling. "Aaron? What _happened_? How could you do that? You did do that, right?" Darvish took one breath and then another and sat down next to Aaron. He reached over and stroked Aaron's back. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know."

They sat like that for few minutes, neither of them saying anything more, until Chandra arrived, running down the corridor.

"I left Petra and the baby with their nurse." She knelt down on the other side of Aaron. "But you're going to have to tell me what that was all about for me to help you."

There was a long pause. Then Aaron seemed to come to some kind of decision and spoke. "My mother was from a clan far to the north and west of my father's. The tribe had named her odd and fey. But I never knew her. She died in childbirth. Because of me." He blinked and they saw that his eyelashes were wet. "I've been dreaming about her."

Darvish's hand tightened in surprise on Aaron's shoulder. Chandra said gently. "Go on."

"She's singing." Aaron's voice took on a dreamy tone and Darvish heard the same yearning in it as he had seen in his eyes before. "She has a beautiful voice."

Chandra broke in. "I think...I think your mother must have had some magic of her own. Wild Magic, not controlled by any god." She touched Aaron's other shoulder in support, wishing she dared hug him right now, because she knew her next words would crack open his world. And she didn't think he would respond with same delight that she did when she first learned of her potential. "Some of this magic must be awakening in you now."

He shook his head, more in defeat than negation. "I never knew. I never knew her." He whispered softly. "I am my father's son. Must I be my mother's as well?"

*

"You okay?" It was now late at night, several hours past the astonishing incident, and Aaron was still up. Darvish had been watching him for a while now.

The younger man turned his head from the window he had been staring out of. Darvish had a feeling that he was seeing something far beyond the stars. "I don't know. I didn't want this."

Darvish nodded. "Well, it did come as rather a shock. Though, Petra didn't seem to mind much."

Aaron was startled into a smile. "No, he didn't." He agreed. "And Chandra is all excited about exploring a different magic." He couldn't quite say "my magic". Not yet.

"However much she tries to hide it." Darvish added, smiling now as well.

A demon wing rose. "She's a bit more tactful now."

"Slightly."

"Just don't let her hear you say that." Aaron paused and looked at the window again, his smile disappearing. "I don't know if I can do this, Dar. I don't know if I can carry so much of a mother I never knew in me as well -" He broke off, and buried his face in his hands, a quick, economical motion.

As well as so much of his father, Darvish knew, and wished again that he could kill that One abandoned bastard. "Aaron, look at me. Please." Aaron looked up and Darvish was struck again by how beautiful he looked by the starlight. By any light. Impulsively, Darvish kissed him, loving those lips, that tongue. Loving IhimI.

He broke the kiss and looked right into Aaron's gray eyes. "It'll be all right. Chandra will help. We'll all figure it out together."

It took a moment, but Aaron finally nodded. Then he sagged in Darvish's arms, suddenly exhausted. "I'll lean on you and you'll lean on me?"

Darvish laughed. "Exactly." He pulled Aaron up and placed an arm around his waist. "We'll be just fine."

Aaron's face shone in the night as he smiled. "Yes, we will."

And Darvish almost thought that he heard a woman's voice, singing.

 


End file.
